The folks over at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have announced they're looking for someone to construct a compact, cylinder-shaped delivery device that can instantly expand into a large structure (web, wall, blockade or barrier) without human intervention. In other words, no assembly required.

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The project is called "Block Access to Deny Entry" or "BlockADE." (Creative acronyms seem to be a source of pride for DARPA.) The agency envisions a container—0.3 meters in diameter, around 2 meters in length, weighing no more than 300 pounds—filled with a material and/or device that "provide expansion ratios of several orders of magnitude, while maintaining sufficient properties to block or slow access to a specified area (e.g., mechanical strength for solid barriers, stickiness or sharpness for web or briar-like barriers, capacity to self-weld or self-assemble, etc.)."

The other criteria is that it must be able to deny or slow access to someone with hand tools, such as saws, hammers, axes and shovels. Bonus points if the design allows for added functionality, including "ballistic resistance."